First the good news. Late last night, the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House of Representatives made history, passing an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- an historic moment bringing America one significant step closer to ending this discriminatory military policy.
But here's the bad news -- and it's really bad: As we told you yesterday in the message below, Sen. John McCain and the Republicans are planning to filibuster -- yes, filibuster -- the entire defense budget bill to stop the repeal of DADT. To defeat us, the extreme right-wing is cranking up their propaganda machine like they did on health care, behind the homophobic attacks of the Family Research Council.
As Keith Olbermann said on MSNBC last night, "John McCain is marshaling his own resistance to the Senate amendment, inexplicably siding with right-wing fringe groups, who are attempting to out-homophobe each other to prevent historic progress for gay Americans."
This is NOT over by a long shot. We've got big plans to stop John McCain and the Family Research Council -- but we can't launch our campaign without your financial support. To win, we have to fight back immediately. Whether it's $5 or $500, we need your help right now:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/FightBack
To catch up on the rest of McCain's extremist obstructionism as well as what it will take to defeat him, please read the message we sent you Thursday morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee vote...
Dear Daniel --
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Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee could make history.
Behind the leadership of Chairman Carl Levin, the Senate committee is on the verge of passing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would remove "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" from federal statute and set the stage for eventual repeal.
That's the good news. The bad news is that this is far, far, far from over.
Roll Call is reporting that Sen. John McCain will "without a doubt" support an unprecedented filibuster of the entire defense budget to stop the repeal of DADT if the bill comes to the floor of the full Senate.
It gets worse. According to the New York Times, McCain also solicited letters from the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines -- that object to the repeal amendment supported by President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen.
McCain's shocking obstructionism is being amplified by the right-wing Family Research Council, which released a video on Wednesday attempting to drive a wedge between the Joint Chiefs and the President, claiming Obama is trying to "force open homosexuality on the military."
This is absolutely outrageous. John McCain and the notorious Family Research Council are declaring war on us. The only way we can stop this Republican filibuster -- and win this war -- is with your support. Please contribute $25, $50, $100 or more now and help us fight back:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/FightBack
We've been organizing against DADT for months -- and we will continue to organize against it for many more months until it's dead and buried. For good.
Fortunately, we've got an equality army ready to go to battle. To date, 280,192 Americans have taken action on DADT through the Courage Campaign. Just this week, thousands more called Congress and more than 15,000 Courage and DFA members committed to hand-delivering Gov. Howard Dean's open letter -- signed by nearly 100,000 Americans -- to Senate offices in all 50 states.
Two weeks ago, the chances of repeal this year looked slim to none. But because of your relentless activism -- and the people power fueled by more than 30 organizations working to repeal DADT -- the Senate Armed Services Committee is on the verge of passing this historic amendment today.
Now John McCain and the extremist Family Research Council are vowing to stop at nothing to crush this movement -- even though a new CNN poll shows 78% of Americans support gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Only you can help us defeat them. Please make a contribution of whatever amount you can afford now to help us fight back:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/FightBack
Thank you for fighting back today. We can't do this without you.
Rick Jacobs
Chair, Courage Campaign
Courage Campaign Equality is a part of the Courage Campaign's multi-issue online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across the country. To get involved in Courage Campaign Equality, visit "Testimony: Equality on Trial" -- our new campaign to bring the Prop 8 trial into the lives of Americans.
To support our campaign to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," please chip in what you can today:
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